IT’S TIME TO PRESS PLAY
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RONALD KOEMAN has told his players they have got to get their heads round Everton’s new pressing game.
The Toffees boss believes a mental block is stopping his team from playing the way he wants consistently to help turn them into challengers again.
And the Dutchman feels the first-half performance in last weekend’s defeat – their first of the season – by Bournemouth is evidence of that.
Koeman is hoping they get it right against Crystal Palace at Goodison tonight.
He said: “Sometimes it’s difficult because our strikers are not used to pressing how we tried to press and it takes time.
“They found it difficult to do it in the way we want.
Compact
“I wasn’t thinking that everything was done after the four wins.”
The players have been working hard on it in traing this week and Koeman explained: “We gave more attention to the aspects of playing compact, of how we need to do pressing, because we have to improve in that area.
“That was the attention in the sessions and we will see now if we do it better than we did last week.
“If they are used to not pressing, then it’s difficult for some players – for some of them it’s a big problem because they don’t know what to do.
“So some will change their attitude and you wait, and finally you make up your mind, yes and no. It’s a mental aspect, not fitness. It is about attitude.” Koeman has explained this in meetings and he allows individuals to give their views, a marked change from previous boss Roberto Martinez.
The Spaniard was not open to players speaking up, but Koeman is happy with feedback.
“Tell me how we can do better pressing?” he said.
“Maybe they’re not used to that, but I need feedback, I like to have communication in the game.
“It’s good to have the meetings because they need to think about football, how we can do better, how we can do more pressing.
“It is about the whole squad, not the manager. Everybody at Everton wants to win and you need feedback to progress.” ®